Initial juvenile size and environmental severity: influence of predation and wave exposure on hatching size in Nucella ostrina

According to life history theory, offspring survival increases with offspring size, mainly because large offspring are more resistant to environmental stress. Populations and species living in habitats with severe environmental conditions have therefore been predicted to produce larger offspring than populations in more benign environments. We studied 10 populations of the rocky intertidal gastropod Nucella ostrina in Barkley Sound, Canada, to determine the extent of variation in average hatching size at a small spatial scale (the sites being